Brussels, 26/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Giving the European Commission back the responsibility for coordinating intelligence information between member states on high-risk overflight zones could slow down the decision-making process in the event of an emergency, according to several MEPs of the committee on transport of the European Parliament on Tuesday 26 April, during an exchange of views with the head of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
According to the report submitted by the agency to the Commission in March of this year (see EUROPE 11514), the responsibility for coordinating information regarding dangerous overflight zones should be returned to DG Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME). However, in the view of several members of the European Parliament, amongst them Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France) and Jacqueline Foster (ECR, UK), a system of this kind could slow down decision-making and communication in the event of an emergency.
Patrick Ky feels that the system is inappropriate in a situation of immediate risk, such as in the case of the ballistic missiles in Iran in March. This, he went on to say, is why the EASA has a network of contact points among the member states to disseminate information with proposed immediate measures submitted by the agency. It is then the responsibility of the member states to notify the airlines and, if necessary, the airlines are then responsible for taking measures in compliance with the national legislations. “This allowed us to react within a few hours”, Ky said.
The issue of the very nature of the decisions made was also discussed. Should these be made obligatory or not? Here, the executive director said that the vast majority of the member states had argued against such a possibility, on the grounds that it should not be for a European agency to impose its decisions on national airlines. Even so, the agency hopes to make progress on this dossier, noting the wide range of national legislations, in which certain member states may impose flight ban decisions on airlines (e.g. Germany, France and the UK) and others may not (Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, etc.) and that its decisions will be binding, he confirmed. “The agency's decision is already binding as regards aircraft production”, another source close to the dossier told EUROPE.
More generally, the MEPs homed in on two major obstacles which could hinder effectiveness: the lack of exchange of information between the national intelligence services and, ultimately, the lack of financial and human resources. On the former point, Ky stressed that the intelligence exchange system was effective. As for the latter, he said that the agency did not currently need additional resources, but that its needs could change very quickly.
The agency's current role is laid down in base Regulation 216/2008. An update of this is to be adopted by the end of the year, an institution source told us. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)